* * *

Remus didn't hesitate to get Sage clothes from upstairs, meaning that the vines and flowers had evaporated into thin air just as she threw over the dress.

The rest of the witches had remained outside, as they were no longer needed to be present for this meeting. And instead, Aurelia had sipped her tea right beside her sister and nieces.

Raven was still on edge, especially when Eli hadn't given up his death glare. "So you released private information about my Luna to your mother and aunt?... Sir, I warned you this would happen." He growled, and Aurelia waved it off.

"She came in worry that something was wrong with the Luna, but realistically, Raven only told me that Sage was able to see the Nymphs in your territories forest." Remus' head shot in the direction of his mate as she was fixing up the pups an afternoon snack as well as a sandwich for herself.

Aurelia claimed before that the first use of that type of magic is always energy draining. That eating and drinking would keep up her levels.

"The pretty wood ladies...That's who you were drawing?" He called out to her and she nodded.

"Is that why you were always going into the woods with Raven?" Blake followed up, and she confirmed it once again—Though frowned a bit afterward.

"I don't know it's bad I could see them." She whispered out, and the Sweet birdie shook her head.

"No, it's not bad. It made it easier to identify. I'm sure if Alpha Hayes truly wanted to, he could build up the eye to see them as well. But specifically seeing woodland nymphs made it easier to identify your powers, as well as what lineage you belong to. With Willow being born in skin, it was able to pass down to Iris' pups witch blood." Hayes had remained silent all for a moment and huffed.

"She never told me...Fucking Walter." Sage's jaw tightened at the mention of her grandfather and Aurelia hummed. "I suppose that is who Iris left her coven for?... The Halliwell line is sacred to us, to any witch coven. While the Warren's are known for their base in Salem, we aren't as powerful." This caused Hayes to slam his fist to the table.

"My daughter caused lightning to shoot down from the sky and you're telling me it's normal?!"

"Yes...It seems that Willow never came into herself and neglected her powers." Sage had turned around, and it was the only reason that Hayes bit back the growl.

The Luna felt like a ticking time bomb, and nobody dared make her angry—Not unless they were prepared to take on lighting.

"You're telling me my mate hid her powers?"
"I'm saying that your idea of your father-in-law should tell you that maybe the male wasn't too keen on having a witch as a mate." She bit back, and realization covered the judgment prior.

Willow might not have been honest about her heritage of being a part of a witch line, but she certainly spoke about the abuse.

"Which one threw my mate out the window?"
"That would be our Elementalist, I did not think fire would be the best approach—Wind is much more controllable...Sage needed to channel the energy, but she also needed an infusion with blood. Duncan is one of the closest to the Halliwell line we have." Aurelia had not lied once since her sitting here, however, her eyes continued to flicker back to Sage and her feet.

Sage was never this quiet or distant, even when she was eating. Lately, Remus had to remind her not to talk while chewing. However, she looked to be concentrating, thus having him rise up from his chair and come up behind her.

Kissing her cheek in greeting and apologizing for his reaction from before, wondering if that was why the bond was torn. Their relationship was making room for Sage's Light bond.

"So, is this everything you told your coven about Sage?" Eli shot towards Raven, but the young witch sighed.

"I only told mom and auntie about the Nymphs and her getting her periods...And—" Her mouth was silenced instantly, as Aurelia followed Remus and his attempt to comfort Sage, the headmistress held up her hand to cease the conversation.

"Someone's listening..." She said, her eyes still on the ground as they shifted into shades of blackness. "Alpha Remus, I need you to step away from Sage." Which only caused him to lock onto her tighter.

"Have a lot of nerve telling me what to do with my mate in my house, witch." But the look of complete fear wracked his heart, what was happening?

"Sage...Sweetheart, who are you talking to?" Aurelia asked, but Sage frowned. "My wolf."

A troubling breath escaped the sweet bird as she came closer. "Remus, I think your mate has been possessed."

"WHAT?!"

"It doesn't happen often, but I can assure you that we will get rid of this demon...All we have to do it—"

"NO!" Sage shouted, as what started as a roar turned quickly into one that was certainly not Lycan.

Remus was pulled out of the mix by Hayes as the father held her down for Aurelia to do whatever was needed. But the slashing and pleading caused Eli to stop his Alpha from intervening.

Aurelia worked quickly in placing her thumb at the center of Sage's temple and the other over her heart.

"Enough!" A voice called out, a male one at that. An accent that certainly wasn't familiar to anyone in the room. And it certainly was not expected to come out of Sage's mouth.

"I expel you Demon back to—"

"Darius! Darius! Darius!" Sage called out in an attempt to stop this madness, and nobody in the room could've expected what to happen next.

Each and every exit had turned into a fireplace, the flames flickering roughly—Causing the pups to whimper in complete fear that Blake didn't hesitate to scoop them up right beside Aurora.

"What the fuck?!" Jack shouted out, as he mumbled it every now and again in the past hour.

"Pardon me..."

The voice come out of Sage's mouth, but she soon slump in her father's hold and held onto him with a slight smile.

"...but I don't appreciate you touching my shadow—Witch." The male sneered, which caused everyone to shift at the attention.

"Sorry I'm late, though I haven't brought any snacks...Now then, you figured it out. It's about damn time!" Aurelia had been downright shocked, sure she thought the demon positioning Sage had been a minor tier and out to do it just to absorb power.

Not a shadow relationship.

"Sage...Who is that?" Remus growled, and Sage smiled. "Darius. He's my friend." And sure enough, it called among the same reaction. "And how long has he been your friend?"

"Darius came back in a dream, when Mikey came to sleep at our door...But I remember Darius when I was a pup." The male hummed in confirmation.

"It's good to see you in the flesh, sweetheart...Sweet goddess, the pups?" He questioned, and it earned him another set of growls. This time from Blake and Aurora combined.

"You've been in my mate's head for that long?!" Remus shouted, sizing the demon up. But it was clear that he hadn't been all that effect, a demon was more immortal than a vampire and could be resurrected on a whim.

"Well, I can see you certainly woke up on the wrong side of the bed, fluffy, but you always have a way of overreacting when it comes to my shadow. So let me break it down for the mutts in the room...Take me as a guardian angel."

Jackson scoffed and gritted his teeth. "So you just popped out of her head?"

"No, I popped up from hell. Goddess, you wolves need to read a damn book, uncultured the lot of you...And I can honestly say that you're all awful for putting my sweet wolfie through absolute shite. You! Thinking Blake was going to rape her! Goddess, do you know how long it took to calm her down from making a crack in the earth's surface!" The demon had thrown a few accusations before looking back at Remus.

"You know what you've done fluffy...But besides that, since I'm here I might as well discuss the fact that Sage needs to align herself with a coven."
"Not a chance." Remus shot back, and Darius shrugged.

"I'm sure my sweet Wolfie can manage well enough as a rogue witch...It's a sanity complex, Remus." The Alpha blinked in sheer shock, the demon had no honor for the authority.

And the disrespect was starting to get clear as Aurelia sighed. "Sir Darius is one of Hades' children." Jules simply held her head in her hands.
"I need a drink, the goddess I swear pup...When I get home it's non-alcoholic wine for the both of us." She mumbled while Eli wrapped an arm around her.

"Hades is real?"

"Hades, Satan, Devil, Lucifer. Father goes by a few names," He says as a list off. "And he doesn't have that many children. And yes, I was careful when Sage was in the last weeks of pregnancy and after the pups." Sage nodded and smiled at him.

"Darius leaves for a lil, but he comes back. He helps me make sentences sound right."
"You're doing that on your own now wolfie—They grow up so fast." He said faking a tear, and Remus surely caught where the sass of his mate was picked up from.

Rue had turned quite interested in the fellow, her hands reaching out from Blake's hold and the Demon smirked. He held out his hand and much like the fire surrounding the windows and doors, it popped up at the center of his palm, where two stuffed bears appeared.

"Bit late for my gifts but there's no postage in the Depths." To say that the room was blindsided was an understatement, but Darius didn't mind. He simply stuck his hands in his suit paints and tutted.

"Wolves, I swear...Introverted as ever." The demon said unimpressed, and Aurelia came closer to the demon. "It's a generational issue, Sir Darius."
"Oi, don't think you're not on my shite list either—You had an inkling the first time you took her blood and you stayed quiet. And now Walter is off telling his grandson and it'll make its way to the rest of Coldridge and goddess knows where else." Darius informed and the wolves had all stood at attention.

"What do you know?" Eli questioned and Darius rolled his eyes.

"I'm her bloody shadow, wolf, I know everything the Luna knows and then some. But I couldn't tell you, Wolfie, that your mother is part witch." Sage nodded in her father's hold towards Darius, he hadn't let up on the tight hold from before.

"Demons are timeless, they know farther than those pup's future." The wolves understood what the witches were getting at. Or that it translated in a way that the moon goddess had everyone's life planned and Demons had access to it.

"So, while the witches are here...Ask the questions. Sage just turned from wolfie royalty to sharing witch royalty. She needs to harness and understand that Halliwell blood in her. Because sooner or later, lil Rue will need it too." Remus' felt like throwing up, the bomb of Sage being a witch was one thing.

But Rue?
His little Rue?

"What about Ronan?"
"Perhaps, but right now I feel her energy—Good luck papa, that's going to be fun." The witches in the room surely chuckled, but Raven remained silent.

"So my child could...Could be both?"
"Will be both," Darius replied, and Blake had almost turned as pale as Remus at that moment.

"The council claims that Randal Moon kidnapped my mate and sold her to the Underground." Darius hummed and looked to his wrist, his tattoo of insurance hadn't glowed.

"That's correct, but Randal had outside help...I'm so sorry, my sweet wolfie. But Snyder was very keen on helping your father do unspeakable things in this pack. Let's say when I met those two in hell, I made sure they have an eternity to pay their dues." Sage grinned at the idea of both Snyder and Kelly being tortured in the bottom pits of hell by a three-headed dog.

"They were sent to hell?"
"Course, Synder was as sketchy as they come. Sneaky too, it's why she had such leeway with your father—Your father had much more help than just wolves and the Black market." Darius said, tapping his tattoo as it began to glow.

And Aurelia breathed the answer Darius had been attempting to get at.

"Snyder made a deal with a demon..." Either Eli and Jackson had looked beyond betrayed, but since the truth was out there—Darius was allowed to speak of it further.

"Synder has done countless deals, her soul had been destined for hell since the first binding. One of which, was that Kelly becomes Luna—that is when I stepped in, of course. That demon is no more, no worries..." Darius said out to those around him.

"You need to find the sacrifice that was made. Since it's pack-based, it needs to be on pack grounds."
"The silver...That's the first place we'll look." Jackson whispered his thought and made it into a declaration, and Remus nodded quickly.

"He used to spend a lot of time in the mountains, that'll be the next place," Remus added along to the plan. "What would a sacrifice leave behind?" The question rang and that is when the witches came into the picture.

A body—And some sort of container to house a written contract.

Though that did not help in description or—

"Oh fuck, is that what's happening in Moon Valley?!" Jules said with a hand to her head, and Darius perked his lips.

"Close...But that's certainly part of the horrors in that damn pack. As of yet, there hasn't been any call, I don't know how Randal and Synder managed to summon a demon..." Darius explained, before his eyes flickered off towards Hayes.
"But it's important to know why Willow was sold to the Underground." It earned him a frown and knitted brows in contemplation during those years.

The Underground hadn't been as big of a threat, so what changed?

"I have special blood, mama has special blood." Darius smiled brightly to his shadow and hummed in delight.
"That's a start, wolfie—Now normally this shadow relation doesn't happen with wolves, only witches. But Father has given me leeway to stay as this hardly happens, but the Moon Goddess has big plans for the future." The demon made it painfully aware as he shot eyes to the females in the room.

By the future, it was clear to everyone that what Darius meant, referenced to the next generation.

______

Date: 2/25/2022

Time: 11:27

Words: 2641

Author's Note:

Sir Darius has made his first physical appearance! Though I don't think Remus is too happy to hear that a male has been in Sage's head for that long.

But with Darius' arrival, the wolves and the witches will make a bit of leeway onto solving the mystery of Willow Mystic. 
In addition to how involved the Snyders were in Randal's Reign, and it's deeper than anyone could have guessed. 

It's important to remember that wolves are very isolated beasts and don't have connections with witches or any other species out there. So Aurelia wasn't lying when she said it was a generational thing to them being confused of Darius' presence.

This phase has one more chapter before turning over to the next.

As always, I love comments and votes! And I'll see you all on Monday!